If our future first baseman's "good" 10 game stretch includes an empty batting average that's not even that good, a <50 walk pace, and 3 extra base hits - all doubles, I don't think that qualifies as a breakout.

Lombo's ISO is about the same as Marrero's over since the beginning of 2010, and his OPS safely higher.

One is a plus defensive second baseman, the other is a barely adequate first baseman.

The better defense he can play, the more valuable Harper is. If he performs as expected playing a good CF, he's a god. If he's at 1B, he's a very good 1B, but not ridiculous. You expect the 1B to have pop. Well, if you are any team but the Nats

I think its too early to tell whether or not he is the answer at first. He's just a kid who hasnt gotten his shot in the big leagues yet. and with LaRoche hitting under .170 I'd much rather see him at first base just to see what he can do.

he has shown power before. in some of his minor league seasons he's had homer totals of 23 (w/25 2B), 18 (28 2B) and 17 (27 2B).

this year 11 of his 42 hits are extra base. would i like to see more power? yeah. but he has gotten his average up to .278, improved his defense and i think could spell LaRoche at 1st from time-to-time (or DH better than stairs).

At this point his ceiling doesn't look very high, so why are we keeping him down? Just bring him up. He would most likely out perform Adam LaRoche. Plus the adrenaline of a call up plus the advantages of being in the majors instead of the minors could help him turn a couple of those doubles into homers. At this point it would not require much for us to get an upgrade at 1B. Please let's just call him up and see what he could do!

I'm kind of surprised by the panicking over Marrero. He is a notoriously streaky hitter, so a slow start isn't out of the norm for him and he will make up for with a few strong weeks sometime this month or next. He has shown plenty of power (.450+ SLG each of the last four seasons) every year in the minors and has looked great defensively in every game I have seen him in this year at first base (also only has one error so far on the year). To boot, there are only six hitters in the IL that are younger than him (TB and BOS teams have 4 of those players).

I'm kind of surprised by the panicking over Marrero. He is a notoriously streaky hitter, so a slow start isn't out of the norm for him and he will make up for with a few strong weeks sometime this month or next. He has shown plenty of power every year in the minors and has looked great defensively in every game I have seen him in this year at first base (also only has one error so far on the year). To boot, there are only six hitters in the IL that are younger than him (TB and BOS teams have 4 of those players).

yup

and he's not in a great line-up either. you can see how that can affect some stud hitters (like werth @ the big league level).